1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to micromanipulators useful for ultrasonic imaging systems and tools, and, more particularly, to a micromanipulator having a tubular structure and at least one compliant mechanism formed from a single tube made of an elastic and/or superelastic material, the micromanipulator enabling treating diseases in a minimally invasive fashion and particularly useful for intravascular intervention applications and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, heart disease such as heart attack and stroke is the number one killer in the United States. One out of four men and women would experience this disease during his/her lifetime. In this category, the coronary artery disease is the most serious and often requires an emergency operation to save lives. The main cause of the coronary artery disease is the accumulation of plaques inside artery, which eventually occludes blood vessels. Several solutions are available, e.g., balloon angioplasty, rotational atherectomy, and intravascular stents (balloon-expandable wire mesh implants), to open up the clogged section, which is called stenosis. Traditionally, during the operation, surgeons rely on X-ray fluoroscopic images that are basically planar images showing the external shape of the silhouette of the lumen of blood vessels. Unfortunately, with X-ray fluoroscopic images, there is a great deal of uncertainty about the exact extent and orientation of the atherosclerotic lesions responsible for the occlusion to find the exact location of the stenosis. In addition, though it is known that restenosis can occur at the same place, it is difficult to check the condition inside the vessels after surgery.
In order to resolve these issues, an ultrasonic transducer has been implemented in the endovascular intervention to visualize the inside of the blood vessels. To date, however, the ultrasonic transducer is only able to see side images of the blood vessels by rotating the transducers in parallel to the blood vessels. Thus, known ultrasonic transducers have a fundamental limitation in their uses in endovascular/intravascular applications. What is needed is a micromanipulator capable of maneuvering the ultrasonic transducer and generating a scanning motion so that front images of the blood vessels in various angles can be captured.